Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Colossians · About this commentary
Put to Death What Is Earthly
Colossians 3:5-7
5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. · WEB
The first command after the resurrection is an execution — and the list ends by calling greed idolatry.
Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth. The verb is blunt and the therefore connects it to the death of verse 3: because you died, kill this. Scripture is not asking for the suppression of impulses but for the treatment of them as already condemned.
The list is five items and moves inward. Sexual immorality and uncleanness are acts; passion and evil desire are the appetites beneath them; covetousness is the settled disposition beneath those.
That last receives a definition the others do not: which is idolatry. Covetousness assigns to a thing the place belonging to God — worship redirected rather than appetite enlarged, which is why it can be practiced by respectable people and never noticed.
Verse 6 states the consequence plainly: for these things' sake the wrath of God comes.
And verse 7 refuses to let the readers stand above the list. You also once walked in them, when you lived in them. The distinction between walking and living is exact — they were not visitors to that conduct but residents. The letter that just placed their life in God says where it used to be kept.
settled What this mark means